Hazard Lake
by SeeMyEvil
Summary: Riley died at the end of Eclipse, but we never really knew how he got there. We just know that Victoria told him she loved him, and that he had cared for the newborns. This is the story of Riley as I see it: cold and independent - Victoria took him away.


**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the Word Processor I used to write this piece. All recognisable characters belong to Stephenie Meyer.**

I threw stones from the side of the lake, making them skip on the surface of the water. I liked to watch them fall, to hear them bubble as though they gasped for air. As if such small things could breathe, such things that did not move of their own volition. The last one I had thrown skipped three times; my personal best was five. I picked another one up, making sure the pebble was slim and smooth so I might get the perfect shot. My hand raised and my wrist crooked in a way that probably looked unhealthy to an outsider. But that was how I was; I liked to be on the outside. I didn't need friends and I certainly didn't need taking care of.

"That's a good throw you have there, boy," a voice called. I turned behind me, my hand ready to fling into the face of any attacker who would try their luck. But the voice had been female, and nothing but affectionate. And the voice was nowhere to be seen. My eyes flew from left to right, scanning the ground around me for any sign of footprints. Furrowing my brow, I examined the bark of a tree just a few paces away from me. It was stripped of the rough bark you would normally see on an aged tree like the ones around here, at Hazard Lake.

A rustling sounded to my right, away from where I had been looking previously. The cry of a bird called out above me and then there was a desperate fluttering of wings. _All the signs of nature that pointed to danger_. A rock was flung into the lake behind me, and I looked to find ripples in the centre of the lake.

I was uneasy here now, and I wished that I had not taken the detour I always made on the way home from school. Wednesdays were no good. With that phrase in mind, I decided to take my leave, flinging the pebble I had gripped into the lake.

"Where are you going, Riley?" the voice inquired. I stopped then, to turn in the direction the voice had come from. But there was no-one there. The calm and even attitude this person held in their voice only unnerved me.

"Just stop it," I whispered to the trees. I turned to leave again, putting one sure foot in front of the other. I did not cower and I would not blunder. It was probably just a prank. Stupid freshmen, always thinking they were so tough and always putting themselves first. What about the juniors?

"But why, Riley?" The voice was sugary sweet now and sounded close behind me. I turned, more swiftly than before. But I needn't bother, because the woman I found was tall and harmless. She was pale in the twilight of late afternoon and seemed to glow under the soft light. Her hair was a wild mass of curls, the burnt red colour splaying out like licks of fire. But somehow, the fiery pattern of her hair was not frightening. She wore a small smile on her face, the enigmatic amusement I could only compare to the Mona Lisa. She was quite beautiful. The only thing to say to me that she was not an angel was the colour of her eyes.

Her eyes were black as cinders, the remnants of a wood fire—like the ones I had started in this small patch of woodland so many times. She was cold now, burnt out and tired as she watched me with the calculating eyes of a demon. And I felt nothing but sympathy for her.

"Are you okay?" I asked her, my voice cracking in the tension. The woman cocked her head to the side with a wondering expression on her face. She stood for a moment, before she was suddenly stood beside me. I hadn't seen her move. She leant into me, studying my face and smelling me with deliberate gusts of breath. Her nostrils flared.

"I'm looking for James," she told me in a whisper. She smiled with true meaning then, and ran her nose along the length of my neck. Her teeth snapping in her skull, she pulled back and grabbed my wrist. Her eyes were like coal now, hard and concentrated. She took a steady breath and pulled my hand up to her mouth. Her touch was icy cold but gentle. She seemed not to want to handle me too roughly, like I was glass.

Her lips parted around my wrist and her eyes flicked upwards to watch my face. I was sure that I looked like a stunned rabbit. I was trying to figure out what she was intending to do, why she had grasped my hand and caressed my neck. Why did she look so forlorn? Who was James?

Who was _she_?

"At least tell me your name!" I cried out to her, and I was desperate. I wanted some warning. I wanted to know why only _now_ I had noticed my skin was goose bumped. Why did I feel fear tearing in my gut? Why was I here? Why did she pick me? What was she doing here? What was her name? A million questions fought to spring from my mouth in my terror.

The woman pulled back from my wrist, but never let it go. Her eyes studied me again and I registered disappointment on her face. Her lips were turned downwards slightly and her brow twitched. Her mouth opened once, closed and opened again before she decided.

"Victoria." That was her name. She drew my wrist up again, running her hands over the skin and tapping on it much like I knew nurses at hospitals did, when they were trying to find a vein. I shivered and tried to struggle free of her grip, bringing my left hand up and pushing against her shoulder. She grabbed that arm too and restrained me with more strength than I ever hoped to possess. My feet rubbed on the stony floor, trying to gain purchase so I could fling her into the lake. But that was no use; I had no way of escaping her grip.

I called out for help then, a last resort. I did not rely on other people for my well being: I did my own grocery shopping, I bought my own clothes, I cleaned my room and I did my own homework. I worked on weekends at the local hardware store and I earned enough money to buy all of the things I needed. _I cooked for myself_.

Victoria had taken that away from me in this moment and now I screamed and cried for my mother. I screamed for her to stop it and I tried to push her away. I pleaded for my life.

She did stop and she told me one last thing before she took what was mine forever. "I love you, Riley and I need your help."

I stared upwards into the skies, with fire in my throat and in my eyes. Victoria stood above me and waited for me to come to my senses. She took one luxurious breath before she reached a hand out to me and pulled me to my feet. Her face was filled with a smile as blinding as the sun.

I examined my surroundings and found it to be early daytime. It was a small wooden shack; the sun bore down on me through cracks in between beams. It cast curious reflections of light all over the walls of the cabin, eight colours of the rainbow, not seven. The cabin was simple and small, but I had no place for it in my mind.

I had been resting on dirty ground, stones and twigs poking into my back…I wasn't uncomfortable. And now I stood in bare feet and the same stones pressed into my soles—I felt no _pain_. Except that in my throat. I pressed a hand to my throat, startled by the quickness of the movement. I never felt more unaware of my body than I did now; I felt lost. My eyes scanned my surroundings again, searching for something familiar. But there was nothing I could recognise…except Victoria.

Taking a heavy breath in, I could smell much more than ever before. I could taste the air. I smelt grass and frost and death. It was winter; March was bound to be filled with death. Animals and people alike struggled to find food. But what stuck out most from all of the scents I could taste in my mouth and smell in my nose, was the sweet smell of flowers. I could not identify a single smell, because I had never cared to study horticulture. But that did not mean I couldn't appreciate them.

But it was winter.

"Riley?" Victoria said, reaching out a hesitant hand. I grabbed her and pulled her to my nose, identifying Victoria as the source of the floral scent. "Does your throat hurt?" she asked. I released her hand and put my own to my throat again, acknowledging the burn once more. With each breath I took, the pain increased and abated at the same time. Flowers soothing, cool air burning.

Victoria pulled my hand from my throat and led me out of the hut into shadowed woodland. The trees around me were unfamiliar and buzzed with life, scuttling and crawling and burrowing. The trees were almost…alive. But Victoria's hand pressed into my own as she pulled me through the woodland and out onto a deserted street. The ground was paved with broken concrete and there was this smell…

Only then did it strike me as off how I had burned for three days and how everything appeared clearer now. What had she done to me? She had bitten my wrist, and then I was on fire.

"What did you do to me, Victoria?" I cried out, my voice as cracked as the concrete we stood on. I worked to modulate my voice, trying to keep it all one tone and make it fierce. But I seemed to struggle to find my voice in the fire of my throat—it was the only thing I could think of now. "Why does my throat hurt?" I wrenched my hand from her grip and tried to move away from her; she was at the root of this. But her face remained passive, and she would not answer me.

"Tell me!" I raged, snatching her arms from in front of her and shaking her. She called out ferally in pain, her eyes shut tightly and her skin creased.

"Let go of me, Riley! You're hurting me!" she shouted with snarled lips and clawed hands. But I would not let go until she gave me some answers.

"Well my _THROAT_ hurts!" I snarled in return. She cried again, but now she opened her eyes and she begged me to let go. She promised me answers in a hushed voice. So I released her arms. She let out an audible sigh of relief.

"Riley." She paused for a moment, rubbing her forearms where I had gripped her. "What have I done to you? I made you into a vampire. Why does your throat hurt? You're craving blood." Her eyes levelled with me, lightened slightly from the black I saw last. I raised my brow and narrowed my eyes—watching for lies. I wasn't a vampire that was for sure. But the word _blood_ had only seemed to worsen the pain in my throat.

"Don't _lie_ to me. Vampires never existed." Victoria put a hand in my hair, caressing my scalp and brushing through in a calming manner. The flowers helped; with her scent so close my, throat burned less. But it was still there, still waiting for whatever it wanted. _Blood_.

"What other explanation do you suppose?" To that, I had no answer. I had seen her bite into my wrist, smelling my neck. She moved silently. But where were the capes and bats? She had not flown and I doubted she could—she was not a vampire.

"I don't know, just not vampires," I replied defiantly. Victoria was stoical as she watched me now, not a hair out of place. Vampires were impossible and I wasn't to be fooled. She could have told me I was a cross-dressing monk and I wouldn't have believed her though…what could she say that I _would_ believe?

"How shall I prove it to you?" she inquired with a bit too much glee. Her face was too close then, mere inches away from my face. Her breath blew into my face and I breathed her in, like it was a drug. Victoria cocked her brow and moved back to where she'd stood a moment ago. I was unsure how she might prove it to me.

"I don't know—"

"For someone who was so independent in his human life, you are so stupid and unreasonable. Riley, you ask what you are and then proceed to discredit any attempt I might make at proving what you are." She smiled slightly. "If I didn't know better, I would say you didn't want to believe it. But because I _do_ know better, I know that you're reacting as any human would to the idea of vampires existing: denial." She back-stepped further away from me before she turned her back and walked along the road.

"Victoria!" I called, but she made no indication that she heard me. The sky was clouded now, and I considered my options. I only had two.

One, I follow Victoria to wherever she is going. She was probably going to prove that I am a vampire and I hated that idea but I didn't know what else she could be leading me to.

Two, I go back into the woodland and wait for death to find me.

Neither were particularly appealing, but survival won out.

We rested in an abandoned warehouse at the edge of Seattle, me and Victoria. She claimed it was spacious and that no-one would think of coming in here except disobedient teenagers; she could take them. She had been planning this all along. I even suspected that she had watched me for weeks before she finally decided to attack. She explained the legends to me were for the most part false, that a vampire was near indestructible. There was no stake to the heart solution; no sunlight would burn as harshly as the fire in your throat. It was difficult to die.

Vampires didn't turn into bats or sleep in coffins either, though she had joked when she asked if I would prefer to rest in a coffin. When I questioned her, she claimed it was a silly joke and that I couldn't sleep. Defiant that I am, I tried to sleep and tossed and turned on the ground all night. Victoria chuckled at the display, a lovely lilting laugh that was only comparable to Marilyn Monroe's. At least, that's what I guessed she sounded like from the photos.

"What are you thinking of, Riley?" Victoria asked as she walked in the door of the warehouse. The heavy metal clattered shut behind her and she dragged a young man over her back. He was a ragdoll in her hands. With the breeze supplied by the closing door, I was thrown into a blood frenzy for the man. I wanted to tear the skin from his body and drink him dry.

A snarl ripped free from my chest as she rested him on the ground near to me. I was still momentarily stunned by the animalistic sounds I produced even two weeks after my change. The denial I felt then was still present now, but I understood that Victoria needed my help. She put a hand out to me in defence of the man, his heartbeat slow in his chest. Next she stood in between me and the prone man; her eyes were calm and determined. I was not meant to drink from him.

"This man is going to help me as well—he's strong and quick. He's perfect." What he was perfect for, I did not know. She had yet to tell me why she even needed _my_ help. "Help me to sit him—no… don't actually, stay where you are." She proceeded to set him up against a cabinet that had been left inside the warehouse. When he was done, she looked up to smile at me. But I could not return the sentiment because the scent of him was maddening! I was choking, trying to keep from drinking out of his veins. I covered my nose and turned away.

Victoria was there with me then, she put two reassuring hands on my shoulders. Her touch was soothing to me and I felt the fire in my throat abate slightly, she was my anchor even if she was the engineer too. She smiled to me and willed me to look at her, for I was still staring into space and just trying to keep myself in control.

"He's going to help us, but first I need you to help me. I need you to change him for me." My brow furrowed at that, 'change him'? How might I go about doing that? Bite his wrist? Sniff his skin? My face filled with horror that I might have to taste his blood and walk away. Impossible.

"Nothing is impossible; we are proof of the impossible." I must have spoken the word without realising. Victoria took my hand and led me over to the man who slept unwillingly. She had drugged him, judging by the smell of chloroform on him. All the time she walked me there, I shook my head because I knew I would fail and I didn't want to let her down.

I studied him now, wearing a blue loose t-shirt and jeans. His boots were black and caked in mud, the treads worn from walking on tough ground. His hair was black and straightened, from the use of gel probably. His skin was tanned. He was unremarkable but his blood was so powerful I wanted it like a human did air. Licking my lips, I anticipated the blood that would pass through my lips—the seventh person I would take.

She pushed me to him, shoved me to the floor. "Don't breathe," she commanded. With baleful eyes I looked up into her stony face and saw that this was something I had to do. So I took his wrist, checking for affirmation that was what I should do. Victoria nodded. Drawing his wrist to my lips, I made sure not to take a breath. With this firm instruction in my mind, I bit into his wrist.

How could she expect me to turn away from _this_? I drank from his wrist madly, not wanting to let go. My hands closed over his arm. The sour taste of chloroform mixed in with his blood, but it did not diminish the quality. It was glorious and it was freeing and then it was gone.

And he was dead.

Releasing a feral cry, I screamed my frustration; I had failed her. But his blood was wonderful. Victoria pulled me to my feet then and stood there, watching me as I snivelled. There was no expression there, just cold watchfulness. She waited for me to stop sobbing. She waited for an hour.

"I'm sorry! The blood, it was too delicious! I couldn't stop…" I murmured. She tore a piece of her peach coloured tank top off and started to dab at my mouth where blood was still rested. She wiped my lips clean and discarded the scrap onto the man I had just drained. She then reached into her pocket for a box of matches, struck a match and dropped it onto his body.

"We have to leave now, Riley." Her voice was emotionless as she moved towards the back of the warehouse which opened out onto a main road out of Seattle. She had chosen this city because it was so large and our location would be hard to pin down if we were careful. I did wonder where she would lead us next though.

She turned right out of the warehouse on the way into town, her suede boots beating on the pavement in the darkness. She hadn't explained why she went out earlier, and I hadn't realised how dark it got. But this was another thing that stunned me—I could see perfectly fine in the dark. What had once blinded me only bared new colours to me. I had been in the darkness when I was human, but I didn't know whether to call this even darker. What I did excited me; it was new every day. Not like when I was human, when I had followed a strict routine to the letter.

I was no longer bored. But I no longer felt sympathy or guilt either. I didn't think anything of the killings I made. Perhaps it was because I wasn't properly aware of myself when I killed. It was as though I left my body when the blood smell overtook me.

Victoria turned and pulled me along beside her, moving quickly through the night. We would take residence somewhere completely different next. And judging by the turns she was making, we would not be on the southern side of Seattle any longer.

"Where are we going?" I asked timidly, unsure of her reaction to me now.

She stopped.

"Do you trust me?" she said suddenly, resting her hands on either side of my face and staring into my eyes. I could not turn away.

"Yes," I replied. She had not shown me danger yet and I hoped she never would.

"Then just wait and see where we land up. I'll explain to you why I asked you to change that man when we get there." With that, she turned on her heel and began to walk again at a faster pace. My hand was still in hers.

After a long trek across Seattle, she had chosen an old boarded up house that was probably due for demolition soon. Victoria sat on a red armchair which had springs and foam coming out of it. Strangely, she looked quite at home in it and curled her feet under her to sit. Her hands picked at the ends of the arms and she studied the pattern with feigned interest.

I chose to sit on top of an old wooden table across from her. The floor was hard under our feet and the house was falling to pieces, bits of brick and mortar crumbled as we arrived. She had pushed the back door open with a hard foot through the chip wood. But the roof was still there, and the memory of a nice house remained in the décor.

Victoria's eyes flicked up to me with catlike definition. She tensed her shoulders and sat up, sitting with one boot-clad foot on the floor and the other in her seat. The enigmatic smile I had seen when she came upon me first appeared on her face, as it often had when I asked questions. It was like she was listening to a private joke in her head, over and over again.

She spoke then. "Why did you kill that man, earlier?"

"I told you, I couldn't help it! I couldn't get a hold of myself. It was impossible," I told her. I begged for understanding with my eyes, she was a vampire too—she must know what it's like.

"Okay, Riley. You are forgiven, but you inconvenienced us. You're only going to have to try again." I began to argue that it wasn't possible again, not with the burn ever present in my throat. I wondered how she had managed to pull away from me. How did she _stop_?

"If you trust my judgement, you will try again. I know that you can do it, and it is just a matter of the right conditions." I nodded in submission. I would try again; I only wanted to help her however I could. She had cared well for me in the past two weeks; it was only fair that I should attempt to care for her. And if this was what she needed…then I would try my best.

"I expect you're wondering what purpose this would have…" Again, I nodded so that she could continue. "So I'm going to tell you that, and you will listen carefully. This is all so that you can _help_ me." She went back to fiddling with the arm of her chair as she spoke.

"I want to claim this city as my own; I want all of its blood. But I'm willing to share. You know how good blood tastes, and it doesn't seem just that I should have it all for myself. I'm not a greedy person and over 600,000 people live here." She licked her lips for emphasis, running her tongue along the surface of her teeth. "I think I might burst if I had it all to myself. So I think a healthy number of vampires to look after all of this blood would be twenty-five. But of course, I'm bound to lapse—just as you did earlier Riley. So I need someone else who I can trust to help me create so many new vampires.

"Riley, I trust you." I smiled widely at her endearment, to know that she trusted me as much as I trusted her filled me with joy. "So, will you help me? Please?" She stood and walked over to me, running a hand through my hair again.

"I will always help you, Victoria." She smiled as wide as the Cheshire Cat and took both of my hands in hers. She pulled me from my perch on the table and wrapped me in her arms, more tightly than I had ever experienced. But it did not hurt. I returned the embrace, deciding from a number of options to rest my hands on her back. I pulled her close to me, breathing in her scent. I felt her breasts press into my chest and began to wonder how old she was. Perhaps I could pose the question once I finally changed a person successfully.

"Thank you, Riley." The words sounded mechanical and without true meaning. She was probably still disappointed by my killing that man earlier; I could understand that. I was disappointed in _myself_. She released me then with a small smile upon her face.

_Success_! I had exercised control for the first time and it had resulted in change. The new vampire woke from her screams with a jolt and expletives on her tongue. With a hand pressed to her chest, and then her throat, she looked at the world around her. I knew that bewilderment well; I knew how unnerving it could be. So when she finally looked in my direction, I smiled to the girl. She was my third attempt; Victoria had burnt the second to ash so that they would never be found. I doubted my first would be either.

The girl who watched me now was nineteen years old, and her name was Karen Hannover. She was pale and had full lips. She was plain and unremarkable…as a human. Now she was quite stunning. Karen was thirsty. Victoria had explained to me that her eyes were black because she hadn't fed in a while when she met me. But she said that things were different for newborns, said that we lived on our own blood for a year before it was all used up and the red colour faded. But I had known the first thing you felt was your throat when you woke—before the venom released you.

"Does your throat hurt?" I asked her. Her brow furrowed and she studied my lips for a moment. The wonder of sound and smell was startling at first, I knew. Karen nodded at my question.

"Why does it hurt? Did you give me a cold?" She stopped and thought, cocking her head to the side just slightly: listening to her voice. "But it doesn't feel like a sore throat." She took a heaving breath in. "It's much worse." She seemed to only be speaking to herself, but I would answer her thoughts anyway.

"You are a vampire, and you are craving blood. I know you won't believe me probably, but there's no other sane sounding explanation. Unless you'd like to try to drink some water?" She looked at the glass of water I held, and her nose wrinkled at the idea instinctively. "You see? It is as unappealing as a dirty rat, to your ears."

I stood from the table, setting it down where I had just been sitting, and went over to Karen. She lay in Victoria's armchair and swiftly sat up at my advance. Silently, she wondered at the impossible movement before she stood to meet me. We stood eye to eye, toe to toe. But there was no hostility in it, just a show of rank. _I_ was in charge.

"Shall I go and get your first meal?" Victoria had told me to feed them quickly or else they would grow weak and would be no use to her. She said that now I was three weeks old, she could trust me not to kill them myself. I didn't want to upset her again; failure was deadly. At least, from the look in her eyes, that was the impression I got. And if they asked what their purpose was—I should tell them what she told me.

Karen was hesitant to answer me. But I knew that on the word blood, she had flinched. So I would go, regardless of what she told me.

"Do not leave this room for anything please, Karen. I will be back soon." I stepped out onto the street, the clouded night time sky sheathing me in darkness. I could move as fast as I liked around here. No-one would see.

But when I came back, blood was spattered on the walls and Karen was sobbing over a broken corpse. I dropped her meal on the table, the glass of water smashing on the floor and wetting Karen as she sat beside the young boy. She wiped invisible tears from her eyes and moved dangling hairs out of her face, only worsening the problem with her bloody hands.

"He just came in and I didn't know what I was doing until I found myself like this and it's so hideous and I'm so thirsty and I needed blood and his blood was just there. He was tired and he didn't even see me until I was on top of him," she babbled. I felt sorry for her; I knew that the scent of blood was maddening. I couldn't have _hoped_ to stop myself in her position. Dragging the body away from her, I set it in the corner of the room tempted to lick the blood from his skin before I came to my senses. I wouldn't be setting a good example for Karen if I did that—we were trying not to be savages.

When I turned around, she was already reaching for the person I had brought in. She grasped his arm from her place on the floor and dragged him off the table. There was a snap as he landed on the ground and Karen's teeth pierced his skin. The chloroform meant that he never felt a thing as she drew out the blood at a sluggish pace. I sighed as I watched, recognising my own actions as similar to hers.

The spilt blood was a sweet fragrance, but one that was more easily resisted now as I had exercised control. The gradual improvement of a stroke patient, trying to find his nerve endings—trying to find the steering that we all took for granted. I sat and watched her take all of his blood.

She looked up and snarled.

I had to come to a 'secret place' to meet Victoria because she didn't want the other newborns to know what she looked like. She had yet to explain why this was so important, and that was what I intended to find out on this visit. She had me return to the first warehouse we had inhabited; apparently no-one had found my first test yet. Each time I walked into that place my eyes found his charred remains. My stomach seemed to churn when I looked—a reminder of my failure. I had never failed when I was human, but Victoria had taken this away from me.

So I pushed the rusted door open and found Victoria sitting almost straight in front of the door. The sunlight I had walked through made her skin glitter like diamonds; she basked in the sun for a moment before I pulled the door shut. Her eyes were redder than when I had last visited; obviously she had fed. Victoria was in much better shape than when I met her nearly two months ago; she was no longer the blackened and cold wood after a bonfire. She was concentrated and intelligent, she was generous. What vampire would want to share so much blood as Victoria?

"Come to me, Riley." Her voice was warm and light. I pulled my hood down and went to sit in front of her, crossed legs mirroring her own position. She smiled with bare teeth at the gesture and reached out for my hand. I let her take it, feeling the familiar calm wash over me as it always did at her touch. The fire of my throat became the slow glow of a dying coal fire.

"Are you okay?" I asked her, as it was custom in my old household. It was just good manners to ask. At the question she nodded, her eyes dancing in her happiness.

"It's time for us to move on," she started. I gave her a confused look before understanding came over me; we had to change hide-outs.

"Are we going to the west side of the city then?" This was the only point on the compass we had yet to touch. Victoria shook her head.

"We are leaving Seattle. There's a town near the coast that we need to claim. The coven there have something of a grudge against me, so with all of you I think we can show them that I am in fact more powerful." Her voice had taken on something of a resentful tone I had never heard before. There was a lot of hate in her. I started to ask a question, but she placed a silencing hand over my mouth. "Trust me," she said. I nodded and she took her hand away.

"They own the town of Forks, this coven of seven. But they waste the blood; they choose not to drink it." I hissed at the thought. How could they leave it there? How _couldn't_ they drink it? "It's quite disturbing, I know. Keeping it because they can, I suppose. But there's a human they treat as a pet; she knows everything about us and the coven in the west, she knows of vampires. How can it be right that such an insignificant and weak human should know us and live?" I shook my head in agreement. I could have helped Victoria much more quickly if I knew of vampires; it wasn't fair that she should have that advantage.

"You see? So it's only fair if we destroy the coven and their pet human. It will be easy." Victoria smiled so widely I thought her face might crack. "But we both have to do something to ensure that we get the right girl, and that the right people are there. No slip ups." She gazed pointedly at me then, warning in her eyes. I nodded again, only wanting to help her.

"In the next few weeks, I'm going to pay the coven a visit. You'll stay here and look after the newborns, but I'll be gone." I wore a pained face at the idea I would be alone with the newborns. What if I couldn't control them? Not that she had been helping _me_… "You'll still have to be producing more newborns though, Riley. And make sure you take down their names and what they do." I began to protest. "BUT I will need to know and it will just be easier if you pass me the writing rather than speak it to me. We may end up in a situation where we are unable to speak." She turned to her left and took a small notebook out of her coat pocket. It was black and filthy but still intact—I wondered where she had got it. Next she passed me a biro pen.

Victoria gestured that I should write in it. "Names and ages. Make sure you write in it every day; write about what the vampires do. We need to keep track of numbers." With a sigh I wrote into the little book of what I knew had happened back in the safe house.

"Victoria, I don't know their full names…" She rolled her eyes and then smiled gently.

"Just write what you know."

I wrote the names of the four vampires I had made and the number of humans I knew they had killed. They were well fed.

"Riley," Victoria said, calling me to attention. I stopped writing. "Don't tell the newborns everything I told you; don't talk about the girl yet. And don't let them know what you're writing—it will upset them." She stood then, a peaceful expression on her face. Pulling her coat on, she began to walk away. I quickly rose to my feet, the book falling to the floor as I moved.

"Victoria?" She turned. "When will I see you again?" She smiled and walked to stand in front of me. Wrapping her hands around my face, she pulled her face close to mine. I stumbled in her grasp, wondering what she was doing. And then she pressed her lips to mine in a chaste kiss.

It only lasted seconds, but it left my lips burning. Her eyes studied my face in the darkness of the warehouse, searching for something in my features. I didn't know what she was doing.

"You trust me, don't you, Riley?" she asked softly, sounding unsure. I sighed at the question; how many times had she asked me this?

"Of course I do," I told her almost petulantly. She smiled again.

"I love you," she said. "I don't know what I would do without you." She released my face from her grip, but ran a careful finger down my nose. I was uncertain of what to say, no-one had told me they loved me before. I closed my eyes, bracing myself as I prepared to say the words.

"I…"

She had left. And the warehouse was cold.

So I did as she asked, noting down any important incidents just as Victoria had asked.

Victoria returned on the 22nd, even risking herself by turning up at the safe house. She knocked on the back door and I went out to greet her. Wrapping my arms around her, she became rigid. I turned away as a show of respect to her superiority; I couldn't hold her like lovers I had seen in my schooling days. We were better than that.

She looked panicked. "Where is that notebook?" I passed her it from my pocket. She took it with shaking hands. Turning the pages frantically, she slowly began to smile. I had pleased her. She shut the notebook with a slap and gave it back to me.

"Is it satisfactory?" I inquired. Her mouth became a thin line, the smile erased completely from her face. Her eyes were wild in the stillness of her expression. I had to wonder what she had done. "Is everything alright?"

"I went to Forks; do you remember I told you what I had to do?" I nodded. "They're all there, all seven of them and their _pet_," she hissed the last part, disdain present on her face. A desperate cry came from inside the house, a guttural wail. Matthew.

"You're doing well, Riley, but you need to increase the numbers greatly." She licked along the surface of her teeth. "Would you need some help?" I shook my head. I didn't want her help; I could manage if I kept myself well fed. But this was becoming more and more difficult as the number of vampires increased. I didn't know when it was safe to leave them. Sally and Rebecca had fought when I left to feed; Karen broke up that fight but Sally was too badly injured to be useful to Victoria.

"I need you to do something else for me." I looked to her again, the fiery hair framing the cold white face. She put a hand on my shoulder. "You need to take some of the girl's belongings from her room. Or else, the newborns won't know where to find her on the day we take over Forks." I considered this. How might I leave them for such a long time?

"When would I go?" Victoria brushed my hair back with her hand, soothing my nerves. She thought for a moment.

"The end of the month."

We had walked the miles from Seattle, Victoria deciding that it would be tempting fate if we were all put inside of cars and trucks. I had successfully changed twenty people into vampires, though they weren't without their drawbacks. I suspected it were only a matter of time until Rebecca and Sara got into another argument. They always seemed to be at each other's throats—quite literally. I tried to keep the newborns from bad tempers, but no matter how many times I fed them they were just as changeable as though they were a day. Some of them were. Some had not yet fed.

I instructed Karen to lead them into the forests. They had to follow the scent of the pillow I'd taken last week. _I_ had to meet Victoria outside the girl's house. She seemed to think the coven would never guess we were there. So I went to her.

And I discovered an awful dog smell. When I asked Victoria about it, she merely told me that the coven had called in extra people to help them. She said that the coven knew they were coming, and had prepared.

She took my hand and led me where the newborns had just gone, though we never approached them. Karen was in charge.

"There!" Victoria suddenly called, pointing in the opposite direction to the newborns. A grim smile appeared on her face as she went in the direction she had gestured to. I followed her, as she had told me to. Just as she had told me not to tell the newborns of her existence, I did not intervene in the battle. Victoria said I would be safe; it would be easy… if I was careful.

"_Their pet's mate plays mind games_," she told me. I would be cautious.

The steep incline was filled with the scent of vampire, the same vampire who had been intertwined with the human. The pet's mate. _Edward_.

We found them at the top of the hill and Victoria's face was blissful before it filled with hate. Her eyes were locked onto the small brunette pressed against the rock face, and the girl returned the gesture. She was terrified. There was something more to this than territory—she'd said a grudge but this was ridiculous. The male vampire who defended the girl had golden eyes—something Victoria had told me was the marker of a vampire who chose not to feed on human blood.

This was a vampire that Victoria hated, one that was too powerful for her to face on her own. There was a call of despair in the background, down the hill. No-one looked. Victoria gestured towards Edward, telling me that I should attack.

"Riley," the vampire said. I gasped, how did he know my name? Victoria…had she made contact with this vampire? "She's lying to you, Riley." I started to look for Victoria, wanting to ask what the vampire was talking of.

"Listen to me." I listened. "She's lying to you just like she lied to the others who are dying in the clearing. You know that she's lied to them, that she had _you_ lie to them, that neither of you were going to help them. Is it so hard to believe that she's lied to you, too?" I had withheld information, not lied. And newborns didn't need help. They were indestructible. Edward moved, I moved. I had a duty to Victoria.

"She doesn't love you, Riley. She never has. She loved someone named James, and you're no more than a tool to her." Victoria snarled. But something flickered in my memory, a human memory.

"_I'm looking for James_," she said. At Hazard Lake. Had she lied for so long? Victoria? I looked to her.

"Riley?" Edward said. I watched him again, watching his feet for movement. "She knows that I will kill you, Riley. She _wants_ you to die so that she doesn't have to keep up the pretence anymore." I wondered at the silent private jokes I had seen in her eyes at the start, in the warehouse. "Yes—you've seen that, haven't you? You've read the reluctance in her eyes, suspected a false note in her promises." The constant questions of trust came to mind; she had asked so many times my response was almost robotic. "You were right. She's never wanted you. Every kiss, every touch was a lie."

I thought for a moment. She claimed to love me—but she's kissed me only three times. These were only awarded when I promised to do something for her. And sometimes, when she had hugged me—she was stiff. The touch was unwanted because she wanted someone else. _James_.

Edward moved again, but I was hesitant to move this time. I wondered at this new information.

"You don't have to die," he promised. He wore the same look in his eyes as Victoria, when she asked of my trust. Was it genuine or a lie? "There are other ways to live than the way she's shown you. It's not all lies and blood, Riley. You can walk away right now. You don't have to die for her lies." Edward moved again, and I moved back. I didn't want to die. Victoria grimaced, but refused to look away from the girl on the rock face.

"Last chance, Riley." I looked to Victoria for guidance. She had kept me safe for so long; she wouldn't put me in danger. She hadn't mentioned death at all.

"He's the liar, Riley," Victoria murmured. "I told you about their mind tricks. You know I love only you." Each time she said those words, my chest seemed to expand. She _loved_ me. And people moved on from relationships all the time. Victoria was no different. She cared for me. Didn't she? Of course.

And then I was gone, the stinking dog smell all around me. And there was pain. There was battle and wolves. There was _blood_. And there was Victoria, slicing through the air with precision.

There was Hazard Lake and I was just a skipping stone, drowning in the smoke and fire.

But where was James?

She was looking for him.

**I hope you enjoyed my own telling of what happened on that side of the fence. This was written with a word limit of 8,000 words for the TwiCanonFodder Challenge.**


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